AN ELDERLY widow was left crying in the street after a youth shoved her to the ground and stole her handbag.

Joyce Bushell, 80, told the Recorder she went berserk after the teenager grabbed the bag, containing a treasured picture of her late husband Fred, from her shoulder.

The incident took place at 11.30am. The attacker is described as Asian, aged about 17, 5ft 11in tall, with brown eyes and wearing smart clothes with a black or blue cap with a white stripe on the front.

In an apparently unrelated incident the following day, a second pensioner was pushed to the ground and had her handbag taken by a gang of three men.

The 65-year-old had got off a 145 bus in The Drive, Ilford, at 1.50pm on Friday and had crossed the A12 when she heard shouting.

As she turned into Ellesmere Gardens, Redbridge, she saw the men - described as black and aged around 20 - behind her.

An asylum seeker who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in a park has been jailed.
Mobarak Hussein approached the girl and her five-year-old sister in August 2005 on Southsea seafront and asked the 12-year-old to get in his car.

When she refused he followed the two youngsters into a nearby park and sat on a bench next to the 12-year-old.